McKinnies, known in St. Louis as a grassroots organizer following the death of Michael Brown, says her family had received death threats prior to her son’s death on October 17. Jones’s death has sparked the hashtag #DanyeJones (which contains graphic images of his body) on social media, by people who say they believe he was lynched. Public skepticism regarding Jones’s death is heightened by the fact that he is the latest person related to the 2014 Ferguson protests to die under what some view as suspicious circumstances.

Days before her son's death, McKinnies says, Jones was looking to the future. After making plans to have chicken alfredo for his birthday on November 19, he wrote a poem for a woman he was seeing. In the poem he talked about getting married someday.

“He had a lot to look forward to,” McKinnies says. “My son was not depressed.”

But based on the circumstances surrounding her son's death, McKinnies says she doesn’t believe he committed suicide. Despite that, police are investigating Jones’s death as such. Sergeant Shawn McGuire, spokesperson for St. Louis County police, tells Teen Vogue that officers responded to a report of a suicide on October 17, but McKinnies denies ever using that word.

“I remember saying, 'Send somebody, my son is hanging from a tree,'” McKinnies says, and believes she’s the only one who called 911 regarding the incident.

McKinnies says she wants the St. Louis County police to consider possibilities other than suicide. She also plans to have her own investigation conducted. She insists that the sheets used to hang her son didn’t come from inside the family’s home, and she doesn’t believe her son knew how to tie a navy knot, the type of knot she says was used in the hanging. In addition, McKinnies tells Teen Vogue that she’s skeptical of a chair that was located near her son's body.

“I can put a chair under anybody if I want to make it look [a certain way],” she says. “That was a prop. That’s all.”

Jones (left) and McKinnies.

Courtesy of Melissa McKinnies

Pending a toxicology report, a cause of death has not been determined, but McKinnies says she’s not giving up on finding out what happened to her son, a man she often refers to as “ambitious.”

Jones, who was purchasing and “flipping” property in St. Louis and Illinois before his death, was born just months after McKinnies lost another son to a head injury.

“Danye came three months early, after my first child died,” McKinnies says. “I asked God for another son, and six and a half months later came Danye, fighting hard.”

“Danye and I had that type of relationship where when I’m in the living room sitting on the couch, he would come and sit on his favorite chair and [we would] either watch horror films or talk for hours and hours,” she adds. “He would tell me about his plans and how he was going to take care of me. He said that so much. He always protected me.”

McKinnies, now grieving the loss of her second son, says it’s her turn to play the role of protector for Jones.

Advertisement

“I want people to know that Danye’s life mattered more than they could ever think or believe,” she says.